


Cursed Hands

by Zummar



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Case Fic, Doctor - Freeform, Greek Mythology - Freeform, Halloween Challenge, Police
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 18:28:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12563508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zummar/pseuds/Zummar
Summary: The man gasped as he tried to fill his lungs with air. “Please” he whispered, “don’t hurt me” he was nauseous with fear and the trembling that went through his body made it difficult to not throw up. “I never hurt anyone…” his voice broke “please…”





	Cursed Hands

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first part of my entry in @plaidstiel-wormstash's Halloween challenge. The story kept growing so instead of on I'll make it a two part. Enjoy!  
> my first case fic
> 
> Not beta'd so, all and any mistakes are mine!

”Noo, don’t…just…no” he raised his hand as a shield over his face, franticly trying to crawl further away from the being coming towards him. “I’ve been good, I never hurt anyone! Please!” his voice cracked in to an incoherent sob when his back hit the in the corner between the bed and dresser. The wall was hard and cold against his back, but the chilling fear was what made the hair on his back rise.

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that” a soft melodic voice that would have been calming if it wasn’t for a cold undertone that made his skin crawl, came from the creature floating half inch above the floor.

She was naked from the waist up, skin so white it glowed in the rays of moonlight seeping through the windows, her hair gently flowing over her shoulders, shimmering in black and teal. When the moonlight hit her face, her eyes gleamed in an eerie light blue color. Something that could only be described as lightning flashes ran across her irises in an irregular pattern.

The man gasped as he tried to fill his lungs with air. “Please” he whispered, “don’t hurt me” he was nauseous with fear and the trembling that went through his body made it difficult to not throw up. “I never hurt anyone…” his voice broke “please…”

She spoke again, her face so close he would have felt her breath against him had she been human but there was nothing, only a cold air around her. “I think maybe Alice would disagree. In fact, I know she does” her lips curled up in the corners of her mouth “actually… _she_ sent me…” She let the words sink in.

He looked at her, confusion written all over his face at first and then realization “Mrs. Barnes?” he breathed “but she’s dead.”

She laughed softly as she let her hand trace his jawbone, gently she placed her left hand on the back of his neck, her fingers digging into his hair. The conversation had him startled to the point that some of the initial fear had subsided. The grip on his neck hardened and she forced him up to standing, still against the corner of the wall. She leaned in and rested her forehead against his as she said:

“Yeah, that is kind of the point, you see…” she rubbed her nose against his, he tried to pull away but the grip on the back of his head was firm, the hair on his arms rose. Her right hands fingers walked across his bare chest, painstakingly slow.

 

“I am an Arae, one of the worst demons from the underworld, and I help the wronged get their well...deserved…revenge” she poked him in his chest with the three last words for emphasis.

“Revenge?” his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard, eyes wide open staring right into the arae’s eyes.

“Mhmm” the arae closed her eyes with a serene, almost happy expression “She feels you’re responsible for her death” her hands were travelling his body leaving cold trails all over his torso, the nausea from before rose again. He desperately wanted her to stop but fear had him paralyzed and there was nowhere to run.  He could hear every beat of his heart against the inside of his ribcage.

She licked her lips before she continued “Her dying wish, or, well technically she was already dead when we met but I digress...she gave me the most wonderful idea on how to make you suffer...just like you made _he_ r suffer!

***

“So, get this” Sam stepped into the kitchen where his brother was having breakfast. Not waiting for Dean to even acknowledge his presence Sam continued “I think I found us a case, but it’s really strange.” He paused and looked up from the tablet in his hands when he heard a grunt from where his brother sat. “You okay?”

Dean groaned and pointed a finger at his mug, filled with scalding hot coffee.

Sam read the text saying _No coffee, no talkie_ “ah, one of those days” he smiled and sat down at the table across from Dean. “Good thing Charlie gave you that mug, huh?” his smile was still there but it didn’t reach all the way to his eyes at the memory of the friend they’d lost.

They sat in silence until Dean had finished both his first cup of coffee and breakfast, he stroked his hands over his face and said “So, strange case?”

Sam looked at Dean with one brow raised and a little smirk “Oh, so we’re good to talk now?”

“Are you gonna tell me ‘bout the case or what?”

“Well, I think there is a case at least” he paused briefly “You see, I accidentally happened to come across both strange deaths and odd…uhm, miraculous ‘healings’” he made air quotes with his right hand at the word ‘healings’ “all in the same town, they all seem connected”

“How?” Dean grunted.

“Look at this” Sam turned the tablet, so Dean could see the side by side articles on the screen, he pointed at the first one, ‘Dr. Jones saves girl with rare cancer’ and next to that ‘Homeless man found dead, had baseball sized tumor in his brain’ and under that ‘Local doctor cures paraplegic teenager’, ‘Woman hurt at Wall mart’.

Dean carefully read through the articles, one by one, his facial expression turning from doubtful to pensive. “Well, yeah…strange, strange that the girl and the homeless guy had what seems, the exact same type of tumor but I’m not totally sold on the paraplegic teen and the woman at wall Mart”

“Ah, but I did some digging and I found a weird coincidence” Sam looked triumphant “The woman, she was healthy and had no accidents up to the day she became paralyzed but when examined the doctors found she had an injury on the exact same vertebra as the teen that was cured, and…” he paused like he wanted a drum roll for effect “the teenager was cured by the same doctor that cured the girl with the tumor!”

“Huh, yeah, that makes it slightly stranger…and familiar” he froze in his thoughts in the middle of placing the dishes in the sink “do you remember that preacher that healed me when I got electrocuted and had a heart attack?”

“Yeah, you might be on to something.” Sam and Dean walked together down the corridor to the library. “So, a bound reaper that cures young people and then is sent to transfer their deaths onto older or less fortunate?”

“Yeah, must be, right?” an uncertainty in the last word “Huh…but, the woman at the store didn’t die, she’s paralyzed…not dead!” Dean looked at his brother, his eyebrows risen and creases deep in his forehead.

“You’re right…maybe reapers can do that too, I mean when they’re bound by magic?”

***

They hit the road within an hour thinking they’d figure out most of the details on the way there. They arrived in the mid-sized town the same afternoon with no other ideas on what could be causing the mysterious deaths than a reaper bound by a witch. The non-death of the paraplegic woman was still bothering the though.  
  
“Ok, so I think I’ve read every lore and information I can find about the reapers and they ALL say that reapers reap, the don’t hurt or really even kill anyone, they just pick us up when it’s our time. And in the case of being bound they only transfer the reason to reap one person to another…” he sighed heavily raking his finger through his hair.

“Hmm…but, isn’t this odd?” Dean stared at the computer screen. “I think I found something”  

Sam moved over to Dean’s side of the table, so they could share the screen. “I did some digging about Dr. Jones here” he nodded at the picture of a handsome man with dark brown hair and light brown eyes “his name came up in two of the articles and turns out he also has connections to the two others too.”

Sam looked at his brother, eyebrows raised “Wha- How?”

“Well, he was at the store when the woman fell, _and_ he apparently his morning run is just passed where the homeless guy was found”

Sam looked from the computer to his brother and back again “I think we need to pay or good Dr. Jones here a visit.” 

***

The next morning Sam and Dean went to the hospital that currently was Dr. Jones’s workplace, they introduced themselves as agents from the CDC in an urgent matter that only Dr. Jones could help them with. The nurse at the front desk made absolutely no fuss of the matter and let them in as soon as there was an opening in the doctor’s schedule.

Sam did most of the talking and when he got Dr. Jones to take him on tour of the hospital Dean excused himself, so he could sneak back into the office to snoop around in peace. There were the usual things, a computer, a desk that hid no secrets, a book shelf and some cupboards along the left wall. Dean searched as thoroughly he could without disturbing the order too much of. He found nothing other than two chocolate bars and a harlequin novel, well hidden under a stack of papers in the topmost drawer. Dean silently slunk back out into the corridor where he texted his Sam.

Five minutes later Sam opened the door to the Impala’s passenger seat and got in. “So, nothing?”

“Nope, not a thing…we need to see his home, got the address?” Dean put the key in the ignition. The impala roared, although Dean would probably say it purred, as he turned the key to start the car.

Turned out the doctor didn’t live too far from the hospital and within ten minutes they’d found a place to park and was heading up to the house. The house wasn’t as big as you’d think, him being a doctor and all but it was well kept, and the lawn meticulously mowed.

They knocked on the door, but there was no answer and Sam looked through the windows to see if there was any movement, the house seemed empty. Sam gave Dean a questioning eye and Dean nodded and pointed to the far end of the house. Without a word they walked to the backside to see if there was somewhere they could get inside.

The back yard was as neat as the front and there was big porch covering the whole length of the house. Dean gestured to Sam that he was going to check the glass door leading from the house and out to the porch. He climbed the steps with careful steps and lightly pushed at the door, to his surprise the door slid open, he turned to Sam who was right behind him “well that was, lucky?” Dean said as he entered what seemed to be a dining room, connected to the kitchen.

“I’ll take upstairs” Sam headed into the small hallway and up the white wooden stair. While Sam searched the two bedrooms, closets and a bathroom with jacuzzi, Dean searched the downstairs.

“Found anything?” Sam asked when he found dean in study going through the books in the shelfs to the right of the big cherry-wood desk placed in front of the window, facing the room.

“No, nothing yet” he pulled out another book, another one about medicine, just as you’d expect.

They continued in silence.

“Uhm, did you see this?” Sam pointed at a section of the book shelf he was searching.

A little distracted by his own doings Dean slowly turned to look at what Sam was pointing at “No, what?” He read the backs. “Mythology, what about it?”

“I don’t know…might be nothing but, it’s the only thing remotely ‘odd’- “he made air quotes again “-that we can find about this guy”

Dean gave his brother a ‘could you just stop with the air quotes’ look as he reached for the book with the most worn cover. He let it fall open in his hand.

“So, something called Arae is his favorite Greek mythology creature?” he eyed the pages, closed book and put it back.

“Wait, what did it say?”

“Just something about demons from the underworld, and that they carry out curses” Dean shrugged his shoulders “let’s get out of here”

***

“It’s not a reaper, the doctor seems squeaky clean and now this-“ Sam sighed heavily and tossed Dean the newspaper he had picked up while getting some groceries, he started unpacking the plastic bag he’d put on the table “-some homeless dude is harassing the police station saying that there is a warlock going around the homeless community, setting spells on them and making them sick, that this has been going on for years and that the finals straw was when his friend died from that tumor.”

“A warlock, huh?”

“Yep, I say we eat and then head on over to see if we can find this ‘Shorty’ guy” Sam raised his hands to make air quotes again.

“Would you please! Stop with those fucking-“ Dean made a face as he exaggerated his imitation of Sam’s favorite gesture.

Sam snorted at his brother and threw him a prepacked sandwich. They ate without a word.

***

Tracking down a homeless guy by the name Shorty wasn’t easy. Ha was not to be found at any of the local shelters and it wasn’t until Sam came up with the idea to search in the area that the dead homeless guy was found a week earlier that they got a lead. They met a lady with no front teeth and grizzly hair, named Louise, and she told them about the guy that died.

“Yeah, Karl was a bit rough around the edges, but he was kind, as long as he got his morning beer he was as cuddly as a kitten” she had a fond look on her face as stroke the bench beside her “they found him on this bench ya’ know…” her eyes welled up with tears.

“Ma’am, can you tell us anything about how he died? Anything strange occurred that night?” Sam’s eyebrows knitted together in a compassionate frown.

Louise gazed far into the distance “I met him that night, he seemed fine” she drifted off in thoughts “nothing was out of the ordinary…but when me and Shorty found him in the morning…” she fell silent and looked up at the men in front of her, “well, he had a hand print on the left side of his face…as if someone had held a hand there, I talked to the police about it but they just said it was from being in a fight…”

“But you don’t think he was in a fight that night?” Sam filled in.

“No, Karl hardly ever fought, specially not fist fights, he always said he’d done enough of them, that he was too old for that now.” She dropped her shoulders and looked so sad and confused Sam couldn’t help but place a supportive hand on her shoulder. A thankful smile curved the corners of her mouth.

“Ma’am, can you tell us where we could find Shorty?”

“Uhm, yeah…the police station I recon…they came and took him this morning.”

Sam and Dean shared a look and then thanked Louise for the help, leaving her with some money for food.

***

Dean dropped Sam of at the coroner’s office and drove himself to the police station.

“Hi there, I’m detective Brown FBI” he flipped his badge open to the clerk at the front desk “I need to have a word with Nikolas Dew or ‘Shorty’” God he loved how Sam so easily could track down the correct names of people, way better to have the right name than just a nickname when trying to pretend to be official FBI. “I was told you had him in custody.”

The clerk’s fingers danced quickly over the keyboard as he looked up the information Dean had given him.

“Yeah, he’s here, I’ll have an officer come and show you the way” Dean sat down at the green leather sofa in the waiting area.

Two minutes later a woman that introduced herself as Officer Day came and showed him into the station.

“What does FBI want with one of our most notorious addicts?” she asked as they walked down a corridor with florescent lights flickering above them.

“I’m afraid I can’t really go into that” Dean tried with the ‘top secret’ card, hopefully she’d let it go. He was lucky, she dropped it and started talking about Shorty. She wrote him off as a delusional drunk, probably with mental health issues.

“He’s been shouting at us to get out and catch this warlock that’s apparently terrorizing the homeless community” she shook her head and smiled at the situation. “A total nutter if you ask me” She unlocked the door they’d stopped in front of “we moved him to an interrogation room” she explained as she opened the door.

Shorty was a white man and form the looks of it he did his nickname justice, he couldn’t have been more than 5”4, his cloths seemed clean but worn and his red hair stood on end, like he just had his fingers in a power socket.

Dean waited until the door closed behind him before he explained why he was there.

“You want to hear about the warlock??” his blue eyes widened in surprise “The FBI wants to know about warlocks?”

“Can you tell me what you’ve seen?” Dean took the seat opposite Shorty. The man shifted nervously in his chair, unable to believe the situation.

“Uhm…yeah, yeah I can do that” he murmured stroking the nape of his neck. “About a year ago a strange man came to us, he was dressed in black and had a dark blue…. What do you call them” he lifted his hands to show how he threw something on his shoulders “a…uhm, like wizards and warlocks have on?”

“A cloak?” Dean filled in.

“Yeah, yes! A cloak!” he smiled, Dean thought the man looked like a child that got lollipop for being a good boy when he smiled.

“Ok, so what does this man do?”

“Not much at first, he mostly just stood around and sort of stared at us…he’s creepy” Shorty’s leg started to bounce nervously “it’s like he’s, I don’t know…scanning us?”

There was a crease between Deans brows “Is that all he does?”

“No, no he sometimes approaches us and tries to talk to us, asks us about our lives and stuff and sometimes he reaches out a hand and touches the one he talks to.”

“Touches, how?” this was weird, even for Dean.

“Yeah, he reaches out and places a hand on the ones he’s talking to, and…I know you’ll think Im crazy like all the other cops here, but I swear that everyone he touches gets sick in some way. Once I saw him lay a hand on a man and he instantly fell down with a broken leg.”

“Is there anything else you can tell me about him? Eye color, hair color, accents? Anything?”

Shorty swallowed hard “No, it’s always too dark to see his eye color and his hair is covered by the hood on the cloak and I never spoken to him, and the once that have said he is kind of whispering, or wheezing between blunt teeth”

“Ok, thank you for your help, sir” Dean placed his hands on the table between them and pushed himself up. He reached into his pocket as he got up and handed Shorty a business card “If there’s anything else, you give me a call, alright?”

He took the card and put it in his jacket. When Dean turned to walk away Shorty said, “Yeah, there is one more thing” he cleared his throat, his eyes flitting between the table and Dean “I…there’s something with his hands…when he touches someone, they all say that his hands…glows” Shorty turned his head down and looked almost ashamed.

“Glows? How?” Dean frowned with a skeptical look on his face.

“Yeah, my friend said they glowed with a reddish light”

***

Dean told Sam about what Shorty had told him as they drove back to the motel, he was as confused about it as Dean. Sam then told Dean about his visit to the coroner’s office. He’d seen the body of Karl, the homeless guy that was found dead, and even though he couldn’t see an actual handprint on Karl’s cheek, he could confirm that it looked like he had been burned or slapped real hard on the left side of his face.

“Found anything else?” Dean asked when they got out of the impala.

“Yeah, there was more bodies, or, the coroner told me he’d seen other markings just like the one on Karl and I tried to crosscheck the deaths to reports of miraculous recoverings, but I couldn’t find anything.”

“Okay, so now what?” Dean stepped inside the motel room and threw his jacket on the bed.

“I don’t know but I think we should try Shorty’s friends. See if they can give us some more info about this man with the glowing hands.”

***

They found Louise at the same spot as last time, she had however never talked to the ‘the man with the hands’ as she called him. She knew someone who had though and followed them to the area where he’d been encountered last.

An old abandoned train station in connection to a forest area was the place she took them to. There was three rusty steel barrels in total that had been turned into fireplaces. The night was chilly and people where hovering around them trying to keep warm. They approached the first group of people, something was stirring but as the group of people around the barrel saw that Louise had brought to outsiders the conversation faded.

Louise held out a hand to stop Sam and Dean to go further “I’ll go talk to them first, ok?”

Neither Sam nor Dean opposed to this idea and quietly stood back and let Louise proceed to talk to the group.

She waved them over and the brothers walked up to the fire.

“Hi, did Louise fill you in about why we’re here?” Sam took the lead.

“Yeah, you’re looking for that creepy guy!” a man in a dirt brown coat said loudly. The others hushed him and a murmur of voices telling him to not be so loud about it rose.

“Yes, **we’re looking for the man with the hands** , anyone seen him recently?” Sam looked over the small crowd.

“Yeah…” a woman to his right in a blue quilted jacket and a big white hat with earflaps said. Her voice was weak, and she quickly looked away when Sam caught her eye.

He raised his eyebrow to urge her on when she did a quick sideways glance at him once again.

“Please, tell us”

“I…I kinda saw him over there” she nodded towards the part of the forest shrouded in darkness “he wanted to talk to me…but I was afraid, so I ran”

“Ok, do you think he could still be here?” Dean asked

“I dunno, maybe…” she had her hands stretch out over the fire, occasionally rubbing them together.

“NOOOOO, DON’T!!!” the scream came from the part of the forest that the woman in the white hat had pointed out. They all froze in their doings briefly. Then everything happened at once, Sam and Dean turned on the spot and ran towards the forest with Louise and the other woman following close after.

“Over there!” Dean shouted to his brother, darting his way into the forest where you could see a faint red light. Dean got there first and threw himself at the cloaked figure that was hovering over a person laid on the ground. “I’ve got him!” he wrestled the man and finally had his hands around his back in a firm grip, resting his weight on the man under him.

Sam and the women were checking on the victim and when they were certain he’d be okay, or at least alive Sam got up and walked over to Dean. He had just finished tying the mans hands together and with his brother they turned him over. A familiar face looked back at them.

“Dr. Jones?”

**Author's Note:**

> leave a comment and hit the kudos button (it's really easy and gives so much love)


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